Québec eyes 2015 World Championships bid

Canada is not only thinking about the Olympics in Vancouver, it has its mind on the 2015 World Championships road race. Québec is planning to make a bid to host the race, according to Le Journal de Québec.

The newspaper wrote that Québec's mayor, Régis Labeaume, talked with ex-UCI president Hein Verbruggen about the possible bid.

Labeaume's city would become the third Canadian city to host the World Championships after Hamilton in 2003 and Montréal in 1974. This year, the country will host the Mountain Bike World Championships in Mont Sainte-Anne.

Canada will also play host to two new ProTour ranked road races later this year: GP de Québec, September 10, and GP de Montréal, September 12. In 2015, the races would act as lead-up events to the World Championships, which runs in late September.

In September last year, the UCI awarded The Netherlands' Limburg Region the 2012 Worlds. This year's edition is in Geelong, Australia, and the 2011 edition will run in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Ponferrada, Spain, Genova, Italy, and Hooglede-Gits, Belgium, are bidding for the 2013 edition.

Québec will have competition with Italian city Bergamo for 2015. Organiser of Settimana Lombarda, GS Domus, announced in November that it would also like to host the World Championships in Bergamo.